Piling apparatus having rotary drive

Abstract

An in-situ pile apparatus 10 includes a helical anchor to which a plurality of elongated generally cylindrically shaped sections can be added. Each of the sections has a specially shaped end portion for connecting to another section. An internal drive is positioned in sections inside the bore of each of the connectable pile sections. The internal drive includes enlarged sections that fit at the joint between pile sections. In one embodiment, the internal drive can be removed to leave a rod behind that defines reinforcement for an added material such as concrete. The rod also allows for a tension rod connection from the anchor tip to an upper portion attachment point.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]Priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 248,349, filed Nov. 14, 2000, incorporated herein by reference, is hereby claimed. This is a continuation in part of Ser. No. 09 / 993,321 filed Nov. 14, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,814,525, the priority of which is claimed and the full disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT[0002]Not applicableREFERENCE TO A “MICROFICHE APPENDIX”[0003]Not applicableBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0004]1. Field of the Invention[0005]The present invention relates to composite piling and more particularly to a piling apparatus that includes a helical anchor lower end portion to which a plurality of connectable sections can be added, each section having a hollow interior through which a drive member can pass, and each section being joined to another section at a joint that has a specially shaped fitting to be engaged by an enlar...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0028]In the preferred embodiment, each section is in the form of a hollow member (eg. thin wall pipe such as 0.188″ wall thickness or 0.125 wall thickness or Schedule 10 pipe) having a bore that receives a drive member or tool. The outer surface of each of the sections has soil displacing ribs that aid in pushing soil away from the sections as the pile apparatus is screwed down into the earth. The hollow bore of each of the sections receives an elongated drive member. The drive member is comprised of connectable sections wherein each of the connectable drive sections is about the same length as each of the pile sections. An enlarged drive member is provided at intervals as part of the drive member, the enlarged section registering with a correspondingly shaped joint that connects two pile sections together.

[0032]A formed (thin wall 0.188″ or Schedule-10 0.125″) pile section that has squared ends is placed over the drive tool and bolted to the conical unit. Silicone caulking can be installed at each square section makeup joint to prevent water or mud from entering the pipe sections.

[0034]A second drive installation tool is bolted to the first. A second formed square sectional hollow form is placed over the drive tool and bolted. The hydraulic planetary drive unit is placed on top of the drive tool and the complete pile section is then screwed down into the soil until the top section reaches near ground level. This same process of installing drive tools and sectional hollow form units is repeated until the proper depth form has been reached (i.e. to satisfy the pile load requirements). As the complete pile unit is screwed down into the earth, the soil displacer ribs will push the soil outward away from the hollow pipe sections, creating less friction on the sections and therefore less torque.

[0035]With the proposed pile apparatus, the helical anchor will pull the hollow pipe forms down. At the same time the soil displacer ribs push the soil radially. This will allow the pile to penetrate deeper with less friction and a truer ft. lb. torque to capacity ratio. This method allows the pile to be installed as a point bearing pile, relying on the capacity of the helical discs that are screwed into the soil. In time, soil will reconsolidate around the larger diameter pipe forms which will develop a known friction capacity which will increase the overall pile capacity.

Problems solved by technology

High capacity pile driving equipment is large and cumbersome to operate in confined areas.

Conventional pile driving equipment can cause stress and fatigue on adjacent structures from weight and vibration.

A problem with this technique is that in weak soils the hole tends to collapse.

Therefore, expensive shoring is required.

If the hole is more than about 4 to 5 feet deep then safety regulations typically require expensive shoring and other safety precautions to prevent workers from being trapped in the hole.

The ram used to insert the Langenbach Jr. piling is large, heavy and expensive.

This approach is cumbersome because the hollow forms are unwieldy and expensive.

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